The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY, JANUARY 5, 1911. ANARCHISTS IN LONDON.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14391, 5 January 1911, Page 4

The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY, JANUARY 5, 1911. ANARCHISTS IN LONDON.

The fight between the police and anarchists in London which we record in our cable news . this morning, though it "wis continued during many hours in most exciting and sensational oireuta'stances, was fortunately not «ocompanied by that lost of life which occurred 1 more than three weeks ago, when the a same desperadoes were surprised in the robbery of a jow6ller'« *hop it Uoundsditch. On that occasion five policemen wore -shot, three fatally. The latest , conflict 1 , though it • did not '• result in any deaths except those m.the anarchists, seems nevertheless to have been, the largest and most exciting disturbance ,'th'dt" has taken place in 'since, the unemployed riots of October 1887, " Riotous meetings of,; unemployed were then dispersed .by the police on several rdnyst ana finally meetings in Trafalgar Square were prevented by 'mounted and foot p'olioe, assisted by ,the First Life Guards.' <Many persons, chiefly police, wore,seriously injured jri fencounrefs with .the men, who wore armed with iron bars and, kriiyes*, Mr John Burns, was tt,mong thbso arrested for complicity in ithftt disturbance, and many of the rioters were sentenced to penal servitude. But there was not, on that occasion, a fire to form the climax of the scene, and it' is probable that for another disturbance in the streets of London so spectacular in its oxcitement we should have to go back to the disgraceful Gordon riots of_ 1780. They were, of course, a disturbance on a far greater scale, since 40,000 pergons followed the banner 'of'the weak-minded Lord George Gordon, pillage and destruction were kept up for nearly six days, and, at the height of .the turmoil, thirty-six fires wero seen blazing at one ■ time. _ It might seem that, in dealing with the latest outrage, the police adopted an unnecessarily danger--ous plan in so soon attempting to storm the premises where the anarchists were esoonced, instead of trying to secure their capture by some slower and safer means, such as starvation. A few desperate men behind barricaded windows, and armed with modern ■weapons, must .always have a great advantage against' others attacking them from tho open. Against this it can be argued that if the police"; had merely drawn a cordon about the-build ing, and the besieged had rushed out as they did at Houndsditch, a number of the besiegers.might have lost.their lives, and the desperadoes have escaped as on t ho previous occasion. Considering' the long continuance of the firand'tho large number )f police and lookers-on, it is remarkable that more lives were not lost. One result of the disturbance will probably be a stronger en-, forcement of tho Aliens Act <ol 1905, and perhaps an amendment of tha't measure which will make it more easy for the police to prevent tho landing of BUSpeoted anarchists and nihilists in England; As the law stands, an undesirable alien, that is, one Who is Without means, or is a lunatic or an idiot, or who has been guilty in another country of an extraditable offence, can in theory be prevented from entering the United Kingdom, but these' rore\isions are apparently not :o easy of enforcement —certainly thwy are not so strictly enforced—•as the clauses of the Act,of 1905 which provide for the expulsion of an alien from Great Britain, if when on offence is charged •■igainst him after his arrival, ho be proved to bo on "undesirable within the meaning; of tho Act. The iiuideiiuacy :»f these provisions, which make England a safe place for anarchists until

they commit such r-rimes as thai of nouiulsilitrh, was slronirl.v urged by the Knfrlish press about two years ago, when two Russian revolutionaries, runiiins,' nruok in the streets of London, shot down and killed the constables wlio pursued them. There has hitherto been a tacit nndi*"staudiiif,' between the priiisi. police authorities and continental anarchists, who mijrht claim to be. at ■worst, only political murderers, with animosities confined to more despotic countries, that the latter shall not be moles ted so long as they behave themselves on British, soil. Although this understanding, combined with the recognition of British freedom, has had a good effect : n securing English royalty alone fr6m any fear of anarchistic violence, it is obvious that the uniWiitten compact has its dangers, and it seems highly doubtful if the Continental revolutionary is a person with whom the representatives of law and order can afford to come to any terms. Ihe fact, recently reported, that forty meeting places of - anarchists .11 Whitechapel had been discovered, should make the authorities consider carefully whether their past -■policy of not unduly interfering .with these gentry should be continued. ■